MARJORIE PAGEL BOOK LAUNCH- WHERE I'M FROM- POEMS & STORIES

MARJORIE PAGEL BOOK LAUNCH- WHERE I'M FROM- POEMS & STORIES- SUNDAY, MARCH 10TH 3PM

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FREE- 3pm-5pm with reading at 4pm

In Where I’m From Marjorie Pagel draws from memory spanning three-quarters of a century, celebrating people and places that have enriched her life. The barn on the front cover, from an original oil painting by her mother, Vivian Johnson, symbolizes the title poem because her childhood on this small Wisconsin farm helped shape the girl into the woman she became: I am still a girl at heart – loving both the country and the city/ loving busy streets and quiet lanes, old friends and new/ drawing memories to me for company. The poems and short prose selections in the first part are all a remembrance of her life on the farm and in the nearby towns of Harrisville and Westfield, Wisconsin. One of these poems celebrates Pagel’s childhood friendship with her brother, Vince Johnson (“Farm Friends.”) Others are written in honor of her father, a weekend farmer, and her mother. A photograph of the farmhouse from Vivian Johnson’s painting prefaces this section.The selections in Part Two, “Family Album,” are word portraits of relatives – Grandmother Ella Ellingson (“Glory”), sisters Wanda (“Sweet Alice”) and Arlene (“Disconnected”), Aunt Maisie (“Maisie’s Memories”), and visits with her grandchildren (“Nana Mii” and “In Pursuit of Bigfoot.”) Introducing the lead poem, “An Artist’s Transformation,” is a photograph of an original painting by the author’s cousin, Dianne Sherlock. The third section of this book, “Of People and Places, Remembered,” broadens its scope to include others beyond the farm and family, who have been part of the author’s life. “The Girls with the Grandmother Faces” – with a photo – is a tribute to her high school friends “who get together now and then. . . celebrating friendships/ of half a century.” “Notes on the Poems and Stories,” at the end of the book, provides context for each selection.